Supercharging for 2022!

There is no doubt that Accountancy firms are going to face significant challenges and great opportunities in 2022.  This is our final review of some of the challenges and issues that were encountered in 2021 that will probably continue in 2022:

Data Will Be King in 2022

A few weeks ago Terry Kramer, Faculty Director of the Anderson School of Management at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) and chair of Skylow technologies indicated that his “expectation was that there would be boom conditions over the next twelve months very similar to what happened when the Spanish flu was finally constrained in 1920.  Kramer said that this boom ushered in the era known as the roaring twenties”.

Boom times are not always rewarding for every business because a lot of businesses miss the starter’s gun.  What strategies does your accountancy firm need to introduce to assist your clients and your team members to benefit from these projected boom times?

Scaling Up

“The Scaling up process should be implemented by partners and senior managers to assist in the development of younger accountants by giving them the opportunity to work with partners and senior managers as they work directly with senior executives of client organisations so that the younger accountants develop the all important skills, gain confidence and a greater appreciation of what the accountants role is so as to help accounting firms with retention and attraction strategies to attract new staff”.  Andrew Geddes, a legend of the Australian accounting industry and a key advisor, director and chair of Green Cross Ltd a company that grew from a one-man veterinary surgery business to a top 200 ASX company.  Geddes indicated that the scaling up process was the key system that was introduced to assist Green Cross to grow to the level that it did.

The recent comments in Accountants Daily “over 70% of the profession are eyeing opportunities elsewhere” has clearly identified the problem that many accounting firms are facing.

Is the “scaling up process” a strategy that you should be considering introducing?

When we asked Andrew Geddes when he thought the new system should be introduced he indicated quite emphatically “YOU’VE GOT TO START NOW – THIS AFTERNOON – BECAUSE YOUR GREATEST CHALLENGE, AT THE MOMENT, IS GETTING GOOD PEOPLE TO WORK WITH!”

Delivery of Business Advisory Services

“Most firms do not have systems for the delivery of Business Advisory Services – it tends to be a one-off job”.  This was a comment made by Mark Holton, a Director of Smithink, when he discussed with Peter Towers in a ESS BIZTOOLS’ Business Advisory Services Podcast the implementation of Business Advisory Services by accounting firms.

Mark indicated that in his 25 years’ experience of assisting accounting firms all over Australia to introduce Business Advisory Services – virtually every firm told him they were offering Business Advisory Services but when he reviewed what was happening they were all “one-off jobs” there was no system to implement follow on processes.

Mark indicated that the “preparation of a Budget or Cash Flow Forecast was an ideal opportunity for accountants to suggest to a client that a quarterly business review meeting process should then be introduced to analyse the actual financial performance against the Budget and Cash Flow estimates progressively throughout the year”.

“If you have got the systems you will get the extra work but you must be prepared to be reactive to what your clients are seeking” small firms and solo practitioners consulting expert Amanda Gascoigne made these comments in our ESS BIZTOOLS Business Advisory Services Podcast.

“Predictive accounting is documenting for future accounting periods what we have been doing in the historical accounting process, but software tools are now available to enable the preparation of “3 in 1 financial forecasts” which enable the future financial position of the business to be clearly documented” Paul Barnaby, Chartered Accountant, Regional Integration Consultant Asia-Pacific for PlanGuru and CEO of Beyond Accounting Technologies.

“We joined ESS BIZTOOLS five years ago as a subscriber and we have never looked back – it is an amazing set of products and tools that we utilise with our clients but we also utilise the system to guide young accountants in our mentoring program to better understand the challenges of delivering a wide range of non-competitive services to SMEs” Priscilla Bea Smith, Director Cloud Nine Associates.

You can link to the ESS BIZTOOLS Business Advisory Services Podcasts by clicking here.

The general theme running through these expert comments is that to establish Business Advisory Services accountancy firms need to have a SYSTEM.  Within the ESS BIZTOOLS’ Business Advisory Services Product Packages we have included systems to guide you through the process of offering a diversified range of services to your clients and prospects in the expectation that you will not be performing “one off jobs” in the future because you will be offering a range of Business Advisory Services as ongoing services offered by your firm to assist your client to Add Value and at the same time offering your accountancy team members interesting and challenging work which will assist you to retain those key people and to attract other accountants who want to work within your firm because you are offering interesting and challenging work along the lines that Andrew Geddes is advocating.

Peter Towers discussed these issues in the latest ESS BIZTOOLS Business Advisory Services Podcast – to access please click here.

Where do you start on a strategy to introduce a diversified range of services?

Our suggestion by introducing a basic range of services built around key marketing and promotional tools for you to get started and then you can add additional product packages as you receive client enquiries about a range of diversified services and as you build up your team skill levels.

ESS BIZTOOLS is extending until 31 December 2021 our special promotion “Tools to Create Opportunities” – which is available to you for 12 months 24×7 access for $795 including GST upfront payment.

This Special Introductory Package offers you:

Four product packages to assist with the introduction of marketing and promotional tools and you then select three additional product packages from a list of twenty-two product packages that you can immediately start utilising.

If you find that you require additional product packages you can subscribe to these as you need them.

You can access the product brochure for this special offer “Tools to Create Opportunities” by clicking here.

You can subscribe for the “Tools to Create Opportunities” package by clicking here.

Want to know more about ESS BIZTOOLS?

You could start by visiting our new upgraded website – www.essbiztools.com.au which will give you an overview of the products and packages and other services that ESS BIZTOOLS can provide that assist accountants to implement a wide range of Diversified Business Advisory Services to assist:

• your clients to add value to their business;
• give your accounting team members interesting and challenging work to perform;
• thus contributing towards staff retention and attraction of potential new team members;
• with benefits to your professional firm from the income generated from “Diversified Business Advisory Services”.

WANT TO KNOW MORE?

You are invited to “Book A Free Strategy and Demonstration Session” on ESS BIZTOOLS with Peter Towers, Managing Director, ESS BIZTOOLS to gain a better understanding of the services that are available within ESS BIZTOOLS and ESS BIZGRANTS?

You can book a demo at www.essbiztools.com.au or contact Peter Towers:

Email: Telephone: 1800 232 088

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND WE TRUST THAT 2022 WILL BE A SUCCESSFUL YEAR FOR YOUR ACCOUNTING FIRM, TEAM MEMBERS AND YOUR CLIENTS. 

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